HAPPILY EVER AFTER By Chris Gavaler
I missed the phone call from my agent, but Lesley wrote down the information on a piece of paper and folded it into a ring box, the kind you hand a prospective fianc
FUNDING WRITING PROJECTS WITH GRANTS By Danielle Westvang
Don’t most writing projects start out with a big idea? It could be something that came to you while you were stuck in traffic, doodled on a scrap of paper during a boring staff meeting, or penned on a coaster while waiting for friends at some trendy new club. If you are anything like me, your best ideas come to you when you’re not really trying to come up with anything brilliant…
ROUNDABOUT WRITING SUCCESS By Eileen Coale
As a child, I was always writing. I wrote lots of stories, and the summer I was eight, I put together several issues of a neighborhood newspaper, which my father copied at work so I could distribute it to the neighbors. I still have a battered copy of one of the issues.
WRITER IN AUGUST—DOLLARS IN DECEMBER By Orpha Thomas
I can still see it. A small plastic poinsettia in faded red with three tiny lights and six dull green leaves. It was such a cheap piece of junk it screamed against making anything out of plastic, ever. Still, it was a symbol of Christmas, and all I had to work with, so I put […]
FREELANCE SUCCESS STORY By Chuck Bednar
I was one of those lucky few who was actually at the right place at the right time.
STRINGER SURVIVAL By Callie Lyons
I have the best job in the world. I don’t keep office hours and I’m a writer. My work is published several times a week for a readership of over 13,000 people.
THE SPIN DOCTOR IS IN By Susan Erling Martinez
Since the early eighties, I have been a fairly successful freelance public relations writer. My career began because my daughter, Amber, needed toe shoes. No kidding. It was 1984. At that time I was working as the director of a non-profit agency, writing a bit on the side, and trying to raise five children mainly on my first husband’s meager teacher’s salary. Money was always tight.
DIRECT MARKETING FOR WRITERS: TAKE A LESSON FROM COPYWRITERS WHEN PROMOTING YOURSELF By Sesselja Bigseth
Forget query letters for a while and think direct marketing instead. Not for you, you say? Perhaps you are a dedicated features writer, and certainly not interested in commercial freelancing? Even so, direct marketing can be a useful tool. Consider the Internet. Ever been amazed by the amount of markets available there? Or overwhelmed by […]
PAYING FOR REVIEWS – 2 THUMBS DOWN By M.J. Rose
A little over a year ago ForeWord Magazine began a pay for review site that created quite a controversy. ForeWordreviews.com offered a review for $295 to any publisher or author who could afford one. Included in the price is the right to print the review in any marketing or publicity effort, lifetime archival of the […]
WHERE THE BOXING TACO LED By Dena Dyer
A boxing taco. That’s the subject of the first story I ever wrote, which I read to the other second grade students in Mrs. Moore’s class at Morningside Elementary. Their laughter was like medicine to me, a shy and often frightened child.